The elimination of the Nintendo Wifi Connection service means that features like online play and leaderboards will no longer be available for the Nintendo DS and Wii.

Nintendo has announced that the Wifi Connection Service for the Nintendo DS, DSi and Wii systems will soon be shut down. Services like the Internet Channel, Netflix, the DS/DSi Browser, Wii Shop Channel and YouTube will not be affected, but online play, matchmaking and leaderboards will no longer be accessible.

Wii and WiiWare games affected by the shutdown include Animal Crossing: Let's Go to the City, Mario Kart Wii, Pokemon Battle Revolution and Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The list of affected DS/DSi titles is more extensive, with a number of Pokemon and Professor Layton games losing functionality, along with Animal Crossing: Wild World, Diddy Kong Racing DS, Mario Kart DS, Metroid Prime Hunters, Picross 3D and numerous others. The Kirby TV Channel, Mario Kart Channel and Wii Speak Channel will also be lost.

Nintendo responded to inquiries with a statement saying that the shutdown is worldwide and that online play for Wii U and 3DS games will not be affected. "Our focus now shifts to readying our Wii U and Nintendo 3DS matchmaking services for upcoming games such as Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros," the statement said. "We at Nintendo sincerely thank our fans for their continued support of our company's legacy systems. Your enthusiasm for games made for these systems speaks to their longevity, and the passion of Nintendo fans."

Details of the coming service shutdown, including a full list of games it will affect, are available from Nintendo. The Nintendo Wifi Connection service will be terminated on May 20.

Andy Chalk:"Our focus now shifts to readying our Wii U and Nintendo 3DS matchmaking services for upcoming games such as Mario Kart 8 and Super Smash Bros," the statement said. "We at Nintendo sincerely thank our fans for their continued support of our company's legacy systems. Your enthusiasm for games made for these systems speaks to their longevity, and the passion of Nintendo fans."

"...Now will you please go out and buy a Wii-U, already?!"

I'd be disappointed, but I have to confess I've never really used the online multiplayer features of my Wii. I'd half-think about it with the few friends I have who have one as well, and contemplate the nonsense involved in punching in codes on top of scheduling a time when we'd both be at home in front of our televisions with nothing better to do, and kind of go "why bother?"

If Nintendo had gone a little farther in making online multiplayer really accessible this generation, they might have had better luck. But everything I've heard suggests, while it's certainly improved, it's still not close to a match to the experiences available to players on any of the competitor consoles (or Steam or the like, for that matter).

Ya, this isn't a death spiral so much as logistics, While some people will be annoyed/etc, it's been YEARS since they've even made non-3DS games at all, etc, and it's unrealistic to assume servers will remain up forever.

At the same time, I wonder if the 'fake' pokemon global link addresses will still work for the DS pokemon games...

If Netflix and Youtube are unaffected by this, then absolutely nothing of value will be lost, except maybe Monster Hunter Tri, but I guess everyone interested on that particular game already has it on 3DS and/or WiiU.

EDIT: Oh?, I didn't know Capcom already shut down the servers last year. My point still stands, absolutely nothing of value will be lost.

SupahGamuh:If Netflix and Youtube are unaffected by this, then absolutely nothing of value will be lost, except maybe Monster Hunter Tri, but I guess everyone interested on that particular game already has it on 3DS and/or WiiU.

SupahGamuh:If Netflix and Youtube are unaffected by this, then absolutely nothing of value will be lost, except maybe Monster Hunter Tri, but I guess everyone interested on that particular game already has it on 3DS and/or WiiU.

Capcom actually turned the servers off for it a long time ago...

I guess I'm a bit upset that Pokemon's GTS is getting cut down to size (start trading for those rare legendaries ASAP), I just bought Metroid Prime Hunters, and I just got Super Smash Bros. Brawl last month.

Uratoh:Ya, this isn't a death spiral so much as logistics, While some people will be annoyed/etc, it's been YEARS since they've even made non-3DS games at all, etc, and it's unrealistic to assume servers will remain up forever.

At the same time, I wonder if the 'fake' pokemon global link addresses will still work for the DS pokemon games...

Well, it may be years but not that many years for some of those games, Pokemon Black & White 2 came out in October 2012 for example, meaning it'll be barely more than one and half years since release date when the servers are switched off in May. That's pretty bad really, you expect a longer service than that even if the sequels have been released.

The only thing that really surprised me was pokemon being on that list. Then again they did sell a fuck ton of copies so chances are most people are more than likely not playing B/W anymore, and/or their teams have already been transferred at this point.

Uratoh:Ya, this isn't a death spiral so much as logistics, While some people will be annoyed/etc, it's been YEARS since they've even made non-3DS games at all, etc, and it's unrealistic to assume servers will remain up forever.

At the same time, I wonder if the 'fake' pokemon global link addresses will still work for the DS pokemon games...

Well, it may be years but not that many years for some of those games, Pokemon Black & White 2 came out in October 2012 for example, meaning it'll be barely more than one and half years since release date when the servers are switched off in May. That's pretty bad really, you expect a longer service than that even if the sequels have been released.

They did say back when X/Y was, then, coming out, Nintendo was shutting down the servers to Gen V PGL.

I played one online game on the Wii; it was a game of goldeneye and it was god awful. This would suck if I had super smash or mario kart but to be honest i didn't like smash 64 and mario kart never dropped in price.

I love how some people are using THIS, of all things, as an excuse to bitch at Nintendo. The Wii has been out since 2006. Do you have any idea how old that is for a home console? And people have been complaining about the Wii's online, and now they're bitching at Nintendo for getting rid of it?

themilo504:I understand why Nintendo does this but could they not have waited until the new smash bros and Mario kart where released before they did something like this.

I agree - it seems a bit early.

In all honesty though Nintendo's focus has never been in online multi player. While their games could've been the online mega hits that some become they chose to keep their focus on local multi player. Thank the Gods they are the only ones trying to keep it alive. A multi player mode where all players a civil (generally) and encourage real human interaction. I'm no fool enough to think it'll be around forever but I'd hate to see it go all the same. Hell local multiplayer is the absolute best way to play any Mario Party game.

Shit. I mean I haven't played ______ online in years but now that the option is being taken away from me, I inexplicably want to!

Yes, I understand the logic. I haven't played Metroid Hunters online in years anyway and that was the only DS game I ever played on the web for any great amount of time. Then I stopped playing it because 1.) playing any touchpad intensive game competitively for hours tends to hurt and 2.) there were far too many people cheating. That was also around the time I found Steam and TF2 and forgot about playing Metroid.

I'm not surprised by this really, because if you look at Nintendo consoles and other services, once the new one comes out they usually just quickly drop the old product like a brick. They did it with the GameCube for the Wii, and they did it for the Wii when it came to the Wii U.

In all honesty though Nintendo's focus has never been in online multi player. While their games could've been the online mega hits that some become they chose to keep their focus on local multi player. Thank the Gods they are the only ones trying to keep it alive. A multi player mode where all players a civil (generally) and encourage real human interaction. I'm no fool enough to think it'll be around forever but I'd hate to see it go all the same. Hell local multiplayer is the absolute best way to play any Mario Party game.

Why is it that people seem to be against online multiplayer and seem to make it that if they happen to do online multiplayer then they can't also do local multiplayer. Games used to do it all the time and online multiplayer isn't bad always, and sometimes it's more convenient when you are in college and your friends just so happen to be on the other side of the country, making local multiplayer impossible. There is nothing wrong with having the options for both local and online multiplayer.

[quote="KazeAizen" post="7.843551.20767811"]Why is it that people seem to be against online multiplayer and seem to make it that if they happen to do online multiplayer then they can't also do local multiplayer. Games used to do it all the time and online multiplayer isn't bad always, and sometimes it's more convenient when you are in college and your friends just so happen to be on the other side of the country, making local multiplayer impossible. There is nothing wrong with having the options for both local and online multiplayer.

Sorry I came off that way. I agree that there is nothing wrong with both. Unless it is friends playing together online just the general behavior of people in online multiplayer annoys me. Its like they forget to be decent human beings. I just have so many fond memories of local multiplayer and seeing it kind of slowly get beat to death has made me a little sad.

I do have some concerns about whether or not I can still use the GTS in the Pokemon games come May 20th. Granted it's not incredibly important, but it would be a little lame. Also, will we still be able to trade between the games? That's a really important part of Pokemon that you can't do without. :/

Hero of Lime:I do have some concerns about whether or not I can still use the GTS in the Pokemon games come May 20th. Granted it's not incredibly important, but it would be a little lame. Also, will we still be able to trade between the games? That's a really important part of Pokemon that you can't do without. :/

You should still be able to trade between the two systems as long as you just connect them together, as it never required online to do that. Also, I thought the GTS for Black and White closed last year, or am I thinking of 4th Gen? One thing I hate about the new GTS in X and Y is that you can't trade event Pokemon over the GTS because the GTS says "no that Pokemon is special." Well too bad, I've got 3 Manaphy, 3 Celebi (10th Anniversary, Pokemon Bank one, and the Relocator one), and 3 Darkrai, I don't need that many and that's what people ask for over the GTS...>.>